Danvers baseball captains target the state final for more glory

Wednesday

Jun 14, 2017 at 3:21 PMJun 14, 2017 at 3:21 PM

Joe McConnell jmcconnell@wickedlocal.com @joesportsWL

The Danvers High School baseball team has been here in this position before, only to come up short against Dighton-Rehoboth and Middleboro the last two years. They know all about winning after capturing their third straight Division 2 North championship against Gloucester, 7-1 at Lowell’s LeLacheur Park last Saturday night, June 10. But they want to take that final step to glory Thursday afternoon, June 15, to erase any lingering memories of those recent heartbreaks.

The Falcons are familiar with the setting. They took on Dighton-Rehoboth in 2015 at Brockton’s Campanelli Stadium, and they are back there again for another shot at the state crown, this time against Greater New Bedford Vocational Thursday, starting at 4 p.m.

After Saturday’s North clincher in Lowell, Danvers captains Matt Andreas, Jordan DeDonato and Dean Borders spoke about the team’s achievements, and what has happened in the past and what lies ahead to squelch that rare feeling of disappointment.

Andreas, the team’s starting catcher, said immediately after the triumph over Gloucester, "it feels good to win another North title, but we know what we still want, and that’s the state title.

"We lost two hard-fought games last year, and the year before, and so we have our sights set on it, and we are not going to stop until we get there," added Andreas.

Andreas recognizes that winning three straight North championships is a remarkable achievement by itself. "It’s great for the team, the program and for Danvers High history, because I don’t think anybody has won it three years in a row, but with that said we still want the state title," he said.

DeDonato, who had a double and a triple against Gloucester to knock in two runs, then offered his thoughts on Thursday’s state championship game. "This will be a great way to go out as seniors. We want to win the states badly this year. It’s great to make history with three straight North titles, but we want to get that ring," he said.

Borders, who injured his elbow in a late regular season game against Saugus, but if need be could pitch against Greater New Bedford, according to coach Roger Day, told Wicked Local Danvers on video, the Danvers Herald’s website, that nobody really expected the team to make it this far again this year.

"It’s an honor to make it this far again," he said. "We were so by the books last year, relying heavily on [Andrew] Olszak, but this year everybody’s contributing from one through nine in the order, and even the bottom of the order has stepped it up with some big at-bats.

"We’re seniors, and we want to go out on top, and leave our mark on Danvers High School baseball," Borders added.

All three captains credit the team’s success to its architect, coach Day. "Even when we might get frustrated and angry in practice, coach Day still puts us through drills, so hopefully everything will be perfect during the games," Borders said.

"[Day] tells us what to do, and we are all buying into what he tells us," echoed Andreas.

But DeDonato then summed it up succinctly: "This will be a big win for us in order to go out on top."